International Standards and Information Systems Quality Management Essay

International Standards and Information Systems Quality Management - Essay Example Quality Management System is defined as a â€Å"set of coordinated activities to direct and control an organization in order to continually improve effectiveness and efficiency of its performance.† These activities are well integrated and synchronized that the understanding of one would not lead to understanding of the entire system as a whole (Gitlow, 2001). The basic purpose is not to detect the defective products after production rather than focusing in producing quality products free of any defects. Implementation of an effective quality management system would benefit an organization whether in manufacturing, service industry or public sector. These companies generally employ some information system to communicate within the organization and to supplier and customers external to the organization. The underlying concept is customer, supplier and the organization working together for their mutual interest. To implement said concept, efforts are required to integrate and str engthen interfaces not only between immediate customers and suppliers but also beyond that are linked to any organization. An efficient and effective quality management system would help in building customer’s confidence on organization’s ability to produce quality products and services, and deliver desired objectives while meeting their wants, needs and expectations. In similar way, quality management system enables an organization to achieve its objectives defined in its policy and strategy with minimum and effective utilization of resources at an optimum cost. Quality management system interfaces all activities of the organization in a coordinated manner starting from identification of customer requirements to meeting customer’s satisfaction at every step of the process. It can be compared to a wedge that ensures consistency of gains along the quality journey by preventing good practices from sliding back as shown below (Business Balls, 2008). An effective qu ality management system would improve process control, reduce waste, decrease costs, increase market share and help to meet customer’s expectations. Quality and Evaluation of Information Systems Evaluation of information systems is a crucial subject for the researchers and practitioners aiming for improvements in the processes of designing and developing the information systems (Checkland & Holwell, 1998). The evaluation of an information system